He is Francois Cluzet, the superb French actor at the center of "Tell No One," the most riveting dramatic thriller in years.

Cluzet's resemblance to the early Hoffman -- in the days of "The Graduate," "Straw Dogs" and "Marathon Man" -- is so striking that it steals attention from a mystery reaching out of the grave.

The face. The body. The posture. The running man. Cluzet and Hoffman seem as one.

Opening Oct. 3 at the Harbor theater in Muskegon, "Tell No One" entraps Cluzet in a deadly puzzle. The plot is so intricate that few will guess the truth until French director Guilluame Canet and his co-screenwriter, Philippe Lefebvre, disclose it at the end. Even then ...

Francois Cluzet

In French with English subtitles, "Tell No One" opens with an idyll that quickly turns dark. Alex (Cluzet) and his wife, Margot (Marie-Josee Croze), sweethearts since childhood, take a night skinny dip in a pond where as children they frolicked and fell in love. On an anchored raft, they have a spat. Margot swims ashore and stalks off. Alex hears muffled cries for help, and dives to Margot's rescue. On the dock he is attacked by an unseen assailant, knocked into a coma and back into the water.

Eight years later, "Tell No One" shows that Alex somehow got back to shore. He is a widower, a pediatrician who treats the poor but can't shake the memory of his wife's death. For years he was the prime suspect. The police still have their doubts, even though a serial killer was implicated.

Beginning his own investigation, Alex steps into a maze of intrigue that shines light on secrets and lies hidden deep in shadows of deception. Unraveling it will involve him with a thug whose hemophiliac son he saved, his ex-cop father-in-law who cannot bear Alex's presence, a lesbian restaurateur who's the lover of Alex's equestrienne sister, a billionaire used to buying his way out of everything, and a hit squad with a sadistic female torpedo whose grip is torture. The Terminator has nothing on this slick chick.

Revealing much more would be telling too much. The great pleasure of experiencing works such as "Tell No One" is figuring things out for yourself, prodded by the filmmaker.

Suffice it to say that Alex discovers more than he wants to know about pedophilia, planted evidence, a cheating heart he thought was true and doubts about himself and others. An escape scene in which Alex must flee the cops across several lanes of busy freeway, makes the heart race.

For all its surprises, one of the finest that "Tell No One" has to offer is Kristin Scott Thomas as the restaurant owner who also is Alex's best friend. The British actress speaks flawless French, and is never less than totally believable.

"Tell No One" was adapted from an American mystery novel by Harlan Cohen. Moved to France, it loses nothing in translation.

Beyond Cluzet, Croze and Thomas, the stellar cast encompasses Andre Dussollier as the father-in-law who's cannier than anyone could suspect, Jean Rochefort as the unprincipled moneybags, Gilles Lellouche as the gangster who becomes Alex's devoted ally and Francois Berlead as a cop who believes Alex in spite of mounting evidence against him.

These names are unknown to most West Michigan moviegoers. They would remain so if not for the Harbor importing foreign-language films such as "Tell No One."

This is one not to miss, a creepy joy played out to a soundtrack that sings of such American artists as Otis Redding ("For Your Precious Love"), Jeff Buckley ("Lilac Wine") and Groove Armada ("Hands of Time").